Aftermath
by RoseOfTheTribe
Summary: Set in 3186, a thousand years after the Reaper Invasion, Lt. Commander Ava Santana is revived from a stasis pod and finds herself in an Earth that had been completely harvested by the Reapers. She perseveres to survive in this desolate planet, voided of life, all while trying to reach out to any survivors across space, while avoiding the new dangers that have arisen as a result.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

* * *

_Above Earth, 2183, during the final fight against the Reapers…_

The battle for Earth against the Reapers raged on as the combined fleets of the galaxy fought to buy time for Commander Shepard to reach the Citadel and activate its arms in order for the Crucible, their last hope, to attach and be implemented so that they could finish off the genocidal invaders and save them all.

While the primary ground forces had already made their landing on Earth hours prior, the cruisers in-orbit were still sustaining heavy casualties against the unrelenting might of the Reapers.

The SSV Odyssey, once a research ship exploring the reaches of the outer-rim, now retrofitted as a warship, was at the forefront of the orbital battle against the Reapers. Lt. Commander **Ava Santana** was at the helm, desperately trying to keep her sailors alive, while keeping the fight up against the Reapers.

* * *

"Get us out of here, Vikirn!" she shouted to her Salarian pilot and navigator, who quickly pulled the ship out of the crosshairs of a massive beam from a Sovereign-Class Reaper ship.

Dashing between another cruiser and a turian dreadnought, the ship began emergency repairs near the rearguard of the massive formation.

"Quickly assess the damages and get us back out there."

"On it, ma'am," Eisley, her lieutenant, answered, running back into the main control center of the ship.

Ava excused herself from the helm, leaving Vikirn to assess the Odyssey's external damages on his own. She glanced at her sailors in the control center, many of whom were sitting in their battle-stations, manning a major system on the ship or an exterior weapon. The lightning in the cabin was beginning to flicker on-and-off, and the Galaxy Map had gone offline completely.

She took a deep breath and sat down towards the rear of the ship in the galley, now a makeshift medical bay with several research containment pods since they had to seal off the lower level of the ship due to a beam blasting through the hull and killing everyone inside.

With her back against the wall, she wiped the sweat off her forehead, adrenaline pumping through every vein in her body. After her CO had been killed in that hull breach, she was retrieving everything she had retained from her training to successfully command the warship. It was taking a vicious toll on her.

Her only hope was that Commander Shepard would reach the Citadel in time so that these sacrifices was worth something in the end.

"How are you holding up?" A familiar voice asked.

She looked up to see Kaetius, a turian soldier who was assigned to her cruiser months ago during the construction of the Crucible. His unit had been picked up by the Normandy's crew in the far reaches of another star system, where the Reapers had encroached upon turian space.

"I'm holding up as best as I can," she sighed, "I've never seen anything like this before, Kaetius."

"You should've seen the vids from Palaven. My people didn't stand a chance."

"I'm sorry."

"At least here, we have a shot," he assured her, "You can't give up now, not with the end of all of this in sight."

"I know, I know. I just… I wish Captain Stevenson could've made it. I didn't expect to take charge like this. He was combat-hardened, he knew exactly what to do. I've never seen battle like this before. Ever."

Kaetius made a noise that sounded like a chuckle.

"It's in times like these where leaders are born, Santana."

He reached out his talonlike hands to help her back on her feet.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Just wish it came with a training manual, you know?"

Suddenly, Lt. Eisley ran over to her.

"Ma'am, there's a special message from Admiral Hackett regarding the Crucible!" she exclaimed, "Hammer ground forces made it to the Citadel! Commander Shepard's there now!"

"Thank the spirits," Kaetius commented, "What happens now?"

"He just needs to get the Citadel arms open and then the Crucible will be able to dock!"

Ava felt confident now that they were in the final run of their mission. She quickly went through the damage assessments with Eisley before returning to the helm. Once sufficient repairs were made, she ordered Vikirn to steer the ship back to the frontline to provide support to the dreadnoughts.

Kaetius stayed up at the helm with her, providing weapons support for Vikirn as they sped right into the fray once more.

Shields began rapidly degrading once the Oculi Reaper fighters began targeting them, inching towards ripping the hull again. With Kaetius manning the front-battery, they were able to shake the Oculi away, but ended up nearly being disintegrated by another beam. Taking evasive maneuvers, the Odyssey was able to find a safer zone in the fray. They were still taking on heavy damage, but it wasn't as constant as it was while they were closer to the sides of the dreadnoughts.

Glancing over at the Citadel, Ava noticed that its arms had fully extended. The Crucible was beginning to dock now.

"It's almost over," Vikirn silently commented, "The nightmare is almost over…"

"I'm buying a round of drinks for the whole crew," Kaetius cheered, "Come on, let's give our girl Shepard all the time she needs to activate that thing!"

Firing up the rear thrusters and speeding forward, the Odyssey fired off a volley of kinetic missiles onto a cluster of Oculi, keeping them at bay from flanking a turian cruiser. With reinforcements providing additional support, it seemed as though the entire combined fleet had rallied behind the news that Shepard was in the final steps of activating the Crucible.

Then...

Minutes went by…

Minutes turned into an hour… two hours…

"The turians have lost three of the major dreadnoughts," Eisley called out, "We are losing our ability to hold them off!"

She was right. The Reapers were too powerful. Too strong. It cost several ships just to take down one Sovereign-Class Reaper out of the thousands that had begun their barrage against them.

"Damn it, where's Shepard?!" Kaetius shouted, "I've lost cannons 3 and 4. Kinetic barriers have gone offline."

"I'm taking us back to the rearguard!" Vikirn told them, "We won't last long at the front anymore!"

"The rearguard's being flanked by another fleet of Reapers!" Eisley reported, "They're encircling the entire fleet!"

"Central Command, this is Lt. Commander Santana of the SSV Odyssey, requesting a sitrep on Shepard's position!"

Only static followed.

She glanced over at the Citadel in the distance. Its arms were still open, and the Crucible had been docked for hours now. What was the hold-up?

"Central Command?! Admiral Hackett?!"

"Let me try to contact one of the other ships," Eisley requested.

They watched on as they departed towards the rearguard of the formation. One-by-one their cruisers fell. The dreadnoughts across every faction were being eviscerated and the Destiny Ascension had fallen in the second phase of the battle. With the heavy-hitters out of commission, the smaller cruisers were beginning to suffer under the intense fire.

"This is Commander Erikson of the SSV Benson," a voice echoed throughout the helm, "I am sending a transmission across the rest of the fleets. Shepard couldn't activate the Crucible in time. Admiral Hackett's ship has fallen in the attack. I'm ordering all remaining ships to return to the Mass Relay and return to our agreed-on rendezvous point. It's our only hope now."

"A retreat?!" Kaetius angrily emphasized, "But, this was supposed to work!"

The ships around them began to break formation, with the larger cruisers buying time for the smaller ones to speed ahead to avoid the bulk of the two-pronged attack by the Reapers.

"Do we have enough fuel to make it, Vikirn?" Ava inquired.

"No," he sighed, "Our auxiliary fuel storage was destroyed in the hull breach."

Panic had begun to set in for her, not knowing what to do or where to go from here.

"We need to return to Earth," Kaetius advised, "We have those specialized pods in the rear of the ship that we can use to safely return to the surface."

"The ones that the research team left behind?" Vikirn skeptically asked, "Are those escape pods?"

"Whatever they are, it's our only hope."

"On your call, ma'am," Vikirn pointed out, "What do we do?"

She hesitated for a moment, trying to weigh her options. What would her CO do? What would **Shepard** do?

"Do it! Back to Earth!"

"By your command."

Vikirn steered the ship out of the formation and down towards Earth. Santana and the rest of the crew began marching back towards the rear, where a small room filled with these boxy containment pods were stored. There enough pods for the remaining sailors, all except for two.

Ava and Eisley both loaded up the pods, setting each one of the sailors inside while the ship rocked from the blasts of enemy Reapers closing in on them from all sides as they raced towards the surface of the planet. All that was left now was Eisley, Kaetius, Vikirn, and her.

"Vikirn!" Ava called over the intercom, "Get your ass down here so that you and Kaetius can get into these pods!"

"No can do… *static*… I need to… *static* … get us as close to the surface as… *static* …we can!"

"Vikirn, are the rear cannons still operational?" Kaetius then asked.

"They are!"

Ava looked over at him, knowing full well what he was going to do.

"No, Kaetius, don't!"

"This is the end of the line for me, Santana, Eisley. I've got to help Vikirn get us to the surface or we'll all be doomed."

"I can't ask you to do that! We can still get through this together!"

He simply shook his head.

"It was an honor to fight by your side, Santana, Eisley. May the spirits guide you both to safety."

Without another word, he ran back to the helm of the ship.

"It sounds like you're going to get some help, Vikirn," she called back over the intercom, "Thank you…"

"It's been my honor, ma'am," he answered before cutting off the comm.

Walking over to the remaining two containment pods, Eisley quickly spoke up.

"Let me settle _you_ in first," she advised.

"No, _you_ should go in first."

"Ma'am, do you know how to operate one of these?"

"No, but…"

"Trust me, I've got it."

Ava carefully lied down inside the pod, nervously watching as it closed. Suddenly, she felt it become extremely cold. She figured that it must've been part of the process.

That is until a voice spoke.

"Stasis pod VI activated," a robotic voice sounded off, "Encasing subject."

Stasis pod? No, that can't be right. That couldn't be right! That would mean...

Before she could protest, she felt herself float off into a deep slumber.

* * *

_A message from the author..._

Hey everyone! This is my first story in this fandom! Was a huge die-hard Mass Effect fan back in the day! Hope you all love it! Please let me know what I can do to improve upon it! Thanks so much! ^.^ - Evie


	2. Awake

**Awake**

* * *

_Somewhere in a desolate plain…_

A cold wind coursed through the shattered wreckage of a space-faring vessel strewn across a lonely snow-filled tundra. It whistled between the cracks of the damaged hull, shining a small amount of light from the distant sun. As the wind pushed, the vessel creaked, with a little bit more of it tearing away from the extremity of its final resting place.

The snow had penetrated deep inside the vessel, having frosted over several containment pods that had remained perfectly preserved in the cold for a long time now. Most of them had cracks, having fatally damaged the occupants inside. But, one of them remained intact.

Suddenly, the intact pod activated.

**REBOOTING…**

**STASIS VI ENERGY CORE DEPLETING…**

**ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS DETECTED...**

**RELEASING SUBJECT FROM STASIS.**

The pod slowly opened itself up, depressurizing, and releasing the subject from stasis.

Ava shot up from the pod, gasping for breath as she sat up. Her muscles felt weak, almost like they were made of goo. She could barely sit up for long before she rested back into the pod. After a moment or two, she regained enough strength to at least get up and out of the pod, but then she felt the extreme rush of cold air bite her.

Quivering, she took refuge back inside the empty pod, all in an attempt to figure out what the hell happened. It became slowly apparent that the Odyssey crash landed on Earth as she recollected her memories.

But, how long as it been? Were the Reapers still about? Maybe some of her crew survived…

Frantically, she rushed over to the other stasis pods.

"Morgan? Daniels? Are you awake?"

The pods of the crew were heavily damaged, with frozen, skeletal remains of her sailors encased inside.

"No… no, no, no… Eisley?!"

She scoured through the dead pods for her second-in-command. Finally, she found her. Her stasis pod was next to hers, but it wasn't as damaged. Eisley was inside, perfectly intact, but seemingly no longer in stasis.

"Oh, thank goodness, Eisley! I'm going to get you out!"

Firing up the pod's VI, it flickered a projection of the pod's energy core.

It was at 0%.

"W-What? That… that can't be right."

"Is… t-t-t-there something you need assistance with?" The limited VI inquired.

"Yes, how come this pod's energy core is at 0%? Weren't they all fully powered?!"

"This pod was set to t-t-t-t-transfer energy in the event another p-p-p-pod lost p-p-power," the VI answered, "This p-p-pod transferred all r-r-r-remaining energy to that pod."

"Which pod was it?!"

"The one this p-pod is connected to."

She looked down at the ground, removing the scattered debris between the two pods and discovered a large, thick cable connected to Eisley's pod. She ran it through until she finally reached the end of it.

It was connected to hers.

At first, she was confused, but she slowly realized its purpose.

Eisley must've connected her pod to hers so that way Ava would've still survived in the event her pod lost power. Not only that, but she instructed the pod to open up once the power core had depleted. She probably did so in order to buy enough time for Ava to survive the crash and the invasion.

She had essentially sacrificed herself for her commander.

Desperately trying to fight back her tears, Ava moved away from Eisley's lifeless pod. Instead, she tried to see if she could locate Kaetius and Vikirn, who were both at the helm of the ship last. She placed her hands around her chest to try and keep herself at least somewhat warm as she trekked throughout the wreckage.

She had to walk around the command center deck, as the ceiling had collapsed onto the galaxy map platform and destroyed that entire section of the Odyssey. But, the bridge to the helm was still intact. Finally, she reached them.

Gasping, she backed away from the sight.

Vikirn and Kaetius' charred and decayed bodies were mangled and covered in snow, with pieces of Kaetius' hard carapace lying about next to him.

"No… no, no…"

Glancing up at the sun outside, she saw that it was edging the horizon as the clouds grew darker, meaning that she'd be in complete darkness soon. But, she had to get answers, she needed to find out what happened. Obviously, they had crash landed, but how long ago? Was it possible that the fleets survived the battle? Were there Reapers still about?

Underneath Vikirn's piloting seat was the Odyssey's "blackbox", which was a specialized data module that contained the ship's most recent transmissions. It was designed to be indestructible and retrievable at any available time. So, she crouched down and ripped open the module's exterior box using the tool that was available for it.

Dragging the data module out, she connected it with her omni-tool and began listening in to the final moments of the flight.

* * *

"Entering the atmosphere," Vikirn called out, "Multiple damage reports on the aft."

"I know, I know," Kaetius irritably shouted, "I can only do so much on these rear cannons! I've got multiple Reaper signatures closing in on us fast. Sovereign-Class. Can't we outrun them?!"

"Not at this rate."

A few moments pass.

"Spirits! Rear cannons are out!"

"We're getting there."

"Careful, Vikirn, one of the Reapers entered the stratosphere after us!"

"I've got to give us a solid landing!"

"Argh! Beam shredded right through our left thruster!"

"Almost there…"

"It's on top of us!"

"Landing gear's damaged, I'm setting her down."

"It's… it's been an honor, Vikirn!"

Static followed. Endless static.

* * *

As the transmission ended, Ava was left at a loss for words. Her arm trembled as she looked at the timestamp of the transmission, then at the current year.

**3186**.

"No… it… it can't have been that long. It can't."

She broke down, trembling in both fear and hopelessness. She couldn't believe that it had been a thousand years. A _thousand years_… gone. The Battle for Earth was just a few seconds ago for her. They were all gone now. Her crew. Eisley. Vikirn. Kaetius.

Why was she the only one that survived?

Warm tears kissed her cold face, sliding down as she buried her face into her hands.

Was she left to die now? Out here in the middle of nowhere? What was she to do now? The rest of humanity could very well be gone now, along with the rest of the galaxy. It's been a thousand years now. Maybe the Reapers had completed their harvest.

As it began to darken outside, she was able to access the crew quarters and find warm blankets and pillows for her to use. She had a thermal conductor to create a fire and burn it in the middle of the pod room, where a giant hole was poking through the ceiling. It would be enough for her to survive the night and hopefully keep anything stalking the wreckage away.

Using her pod as a form of a shelter, she sat, staring at the flames burning away at the flammable discarded items she put together, trying to think about what the next move is. Should she try to set up a beacon to search for survivors? Or would that attract the Reapers to her position?

Whatever it was, she had to act fast before succumbing to the cold, to starvation...

Or worse.

* * *

_A message from the author..._

Hey everyone! Hope you're all enjoying this story so far! Please let me know what you think thus far! Thank you so much! ^.^ - Evie


End file.
